TED Talk with Pat Mitchell: Dangerous Times Call For Dangerous Women

    The resource above is a TED Talk given by Pat Mitchell who has become the president of CNN Productions and the first woman president and CEO of PBS and the Paley Center for Media. Nowadays, her commitment to connect and strengthen a global community of women leaders continues as a conference curator, advisor and mentor.

    In this video, Pat Mitchell not only tells the importance of taking risks and challenging ourselves but also shares what she learnt by being a woman leader from the ’70s until today that could encourage women and girls to show up and speak up for their rights and requirements.

    Here are some quotes from the talk that I think are inspiring to women who intend to become women leaders and create a less dangerous world for the next generation.

“Postmenopausal women like me, not that long ago, were considered useless or crazy. We were valued for caregiving and grandmothering -- and I really love that part. But we were pushed aside and expected to retire to our rocking chairs. Women on the dangerous side of 60 are not retiring. We are rewiring — taking all that we know and have done -- and that is a lot -- to redefine what age looks like, can do, can accomplish. But becoming dangerous isn't about becoming a certain age, because at each end of the age spectrum, brave women and girls are stepping up, taking the risk to create change.”

“And later, in the power positions in media, often as the first or only woman, aware of being judged through that gender lens, I struggled from time to time to find the right balance between being a leader for women and not being entirely defined as a woman leader. But today, I'm proud to be known as a woman leader. As an activist, advocate, feminist and as a newly declared dangerous woman, I'm caring less what others say and saying more clearly what I think and feel. And let me be clear: I acknowledge my privilege in being able to do that, to speak my truth. And to stand here today with this opportunity to talk to you about women and power -- note I did not say ‘empowered.’ I don't think we're waiting to be empowered. I think we have power.”